U.S. life insurance application activity ended Q2 up +4.3% Year-to-Date (YTD), with activity in June Year-over-Year (YOY) up +4.5%. When taking a historical lookback, 2023 mid-year YTD activity was down -2.0% compared to 2021, up +5.1% compared to 2020, and up +6.5% compared to 2019. On a quarterly basis, activity during Q2-2023 was up +3.5% compared to Q2-2022. Additionally, in a pattern consistent with historical seasonal trends, Q2-2023 was down compared to Q1-2023 by -13.3%.

Trends across age groups shifted in the first half of 2023, with younger age bands 0-50 significantly out pacing other age bands in growth, reversing trends in 2022 where ages 71+ consistently led in growth while ages 0-50 declined. For the month of June in 2023, activity was up for ages 0-50, flat for ages 51-60 and declined for ages 61+ compared to June 2022. Quarterly activity for Q2 followed a similar pattern with ages 0-30 up +6.2%, ages 31-50 up +7.1%, ages 51-60 flat at -0.0%, ages 61-70 down -3.5%, and ages 71+ down -5.0% when comparing Q2-2023 YOY to Q2-2022. On a YTD basis, activity as of mid-year was up for ages 0-50, flat for ages 51-60 and 71+, and declined for ages 61-70.

June YOY saw flat activity for face amounts up to and including $250K, and double-digit growth amounts over $250K. On a quarterly basis, when comparing Q2-2023 activity to Q2-2022 YOY, face amounts over $250K saw growth, in the double digits for amounts over $1M up to and including $5M, while amounts up to and including $250K declined.

When including age bands, Q2 YOY saw growth for ages 0-30 for face amounts up to and including $5M, in the double digits for amounts over $250K up to and including $500K and amounts over $1M up to and including 5M, and double-digit declines for amounts over $5M. Ages 31-50 saw flat activity for amount up to and including $250K and growth for all other face amounts, in the double digits for amounts over $1M. Ages 51-60 saw declines for amount up to and including $250K and growth for all other face amounts, in the double digits for amounts over $1M. Ages 61-70 saw growth for amounts over $250K up to and including $5M, in the double digits for amounts over $250K up to and including $2.5M, and declines for all other face amount. Ages 71+ saw growth for amounts over $250K up to and including $5M, in the double digits for amounts over $1M up to and including $5M, and declines for all other face amounts.

Q2-2023 saw growth compared to Q2-2022 YOY for Universal Life and Whole Life, and flat activity for Term Life. When including age bands in the Q2 YOY analysis, Term Life saw growth for ages 0-50, flat activity for ages 51-60, and double-digit declines for ages 61+. Universal Life saw growth for ages 0-60, in the double digits for ages 0-50, flat activity for ages 61-70, and declines for ages 71+. Whole Life saw growth for ages 0-50, declines for ages 51-70, and flat activity for ages 71+.

For the mid-year report, we are including an analysis on application activity by gender. Historically, female applicants represent a larger proportion of activity than males. In 2023, this trend continued, though the difference was slight, with females accounting for 46.4% of total application activity while males accounted for 45.9% as of mid-year (the remainder of applicants are undesignated). When examining 2023 mid-year YTD activity, growth for males outpaced that for females, at +5.5% and +3.3% respectively. This is a shift from 2022 YTD growth patterns, where females slightly outpaced males both at mid-year and as of the end of the year. Worthy of noting, mid-year YTD growth in 2023 for males outperformed females across ages 0-60, with the highest gender-based variance for ages 51-60. However, males and females ages 61+ had similar YTD growth patterns, with variances by gender of less than 1%.

When examining face amount activity by gender, we saw similar YTD activity patterns for males and females, with growth for face amounts over $250K and flat activity for amounts up to and including $250K. For amounts over $250K up to and including $5M, YTD growth for females slightly outpaced males, while growth for males outpaced females for amounts up to and including $250K and amounts over $5M. Note, more than 60% of application activity for both males and females is for amounts up to and including $250K.

When adding product type to our gender analysis, we saw YTD growth for all products across both males and females. Growth for males for Term Life and Whole Life outpaced growth for females, while growth patterns for Universal Life were similar for males and females (variances less than 1%).

Coming Soon - As part of our mid-year report we will be publishing a video providing additional insights into the first half of 2023. Watch your email for more information and follow us on LinkedIn to receive notifications in your feed.